


25 Days Has September - Love

by Davechicken



Series: 25 Days Has September [20]
Category: Revolution (TV)
Genre: Set post season one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-19
Updated: 2013-09-19
Packaged: 2017-12-27 01:04:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/972489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Davechicken/pseuds/Davechicken





	25 Days Has September - Love

Charlie finds him out in the woods, nursing another bottle. She wonders how he manages to find them all. He must have some special ability - an acute sense of smell, maybe - because he always seems to home in on the nearest bottle of swill.

"Not now, Charlie."

She ignores him and sits down next to him.

For a while, he pretends she's not there. She watches quietly as he drinks, but she sees his hand clenching tighter and tighter on the bottle. Sees the tension in his jaw. She knows it is only a matter of time.

"I said not now."

"I know," she replies. "But I'm not leaving until you talk to me."

"I already did. So scram." He gestures with the bottle, not meeting her eyes.

"No."

"What the fuck do you want from me, Charlie?" He rounds on her now, his eyes sharp and hurting.

"I want you to put down the bottle and talk to me. Ever since I met you, you've been using alcohol instead of your head."

"I function fine in the day, this is my time off. You don't have any right to judge me."

"I have every right," she reminds him. "I'm your family."

"You're my dead brother's pain in the ass is what you are."

She considers trying to take the bottle, but she thinks it might make him snap.

"I miss Nora too."

"Shut up, Charlie, I swear to god."

"I miss her but we can't bring her back."

"I'm going to count to ten--"

"You shouldn't feel bad. You tried to help her. It's my mom who left her."

His hands are shaking with rage. She knows she has to be careful. Knows how close to the edge he can get. Knows how easy it is for him to fall from the light into the low, hungry darkness.

"I left her too."

She shakes her head. "You came back."

"No... I was... I... I was saving Bass."

"So?"

"I was saving Bass, and... and if I'd been back sooner..."

"Then Monroe would be dead and maybe Nora wouldn't be. But you can't second guess it, Miles. She did what she did for a reason. She believed in it. And she wouldn't want you to drink yourself to death over it."

"Don't you get it?" he asks, and she knows he's about to really lose it now. She knows. She can feel it in the air. But he needs to get this out there. He needs to say the words. He's been hiding from them for too long, and no one has dared force his hand. His tongue.

"Tell me."

"She was... fuck, Charlie! She was wonderful. She was brave and smart. She had a moral compass. She saved my ass and my soul more than once. She never gave up fighting for what she believed in. Ever. And what do I do? I get her killed because I'm off saving _Bass_."

"You didn't get her killed," Charlie repeats. "You didn't pull a trigger. You didn't kill her, Miles."

"I did! I did. I left her to die, so I could save that worthless piece of shit!"

"Is that how you really feel about him?" Charlie doesn't fully understand their relationship, but the more she sees of Monroe - this new Monroe, not the one who used to be there wherever her uncle was. The old Monroe who was full of smiles and who would do anything to make you laugh, but who looked haunted when he didn't think you see. The more she sees of Monroe, the more she starts to understand.

"He's... fuck, Charlie, he's my _brother_. My whole goddamn life. He's my family as much as you or Ben ever were. He means as much to me as anyone, but I... I can't..."

Charlie reaches out to the hand on the bottle and just... touches him. "He saved me in the Tower."

Miles is swallowing down tears, she can see. He's hunched over and just this side of crying.

"I know he's done bad things. He... he's hurt my family. My dad and my brother are dead. But he didn't pull the trigger on them, either."

Miles looks about ready to punch something. She holds his hand tighter. 

"You can't kill him."

A choked laugh and Miles shakes his head. "Never."

"And you're scared if you forgive him, you'll have to forgive yourself, too."

From the look in his eyes, she knows she's got it right. She knows it's the crux of the matter. Miles is punishing both of them for his sins. 

"No..."

Her fingers close around his. "If you want to make amends, you're going to have to accept that forgiveness is possible. Even for you."

She takes pity on him and wraps an arm around him. He goes stiff in her arms and objects, but finally... something snaps. He wraps his arms back around her and cries his heart out.

Charlie strokes his back slowly, holding him through his pain.

"It's okay," she says, soothingly. "It's okay. I forgive you, and so would Nora."

He goes tense again, and she wonders...

"...and so will Bass."

Because she knows he will. She saw it in his eyes. She saw it when he saved her. She knows he's family as much as she is.


End file.
